Carl and His Sister.

 

The girl was talking. I pretended to listen. She wasn’t very interesting. I wanted to ask her about Carl. Now, Carl interested me. Carl was the reason I was here.

Last chance before they locked him up, threw away the key.

I already knew Carl’s future. A secure unit. Chains. Locks. Drugs.

What interested me was his past. The girl was part of his past so I talked to her. She didn’t know anything. Only wanted to talk about Carl as a boyfriend. Not Carl, the man who’d told her to go and kill people. She was talking, so I listened. Pretended I was interested. An intelligent girl. Nineteen, a week ago. The day she went out and hacked two people to death. Some people have strange ways of celebrating a birthday.

Carl’s idea. Clever, manipulative Carl.

‘I had a personal wish list. Tall, dark and handsome. Conventional and not very original. I suppose I could have added more qualities to the list, but where do you start?’

She looked at me, expecting a response. I shrugged. ‘What matters to you?’

‘Rich? Well-endowed?’

I laughed. ‘Do me a favour!’

She grinned. Two mates chatting. Cosy. ‘Yeah. Why be greedy? I was what most people would call choosy; certainly all my mates did, until I met a lad called Terry Hermiston and all that went out of the window. Terry was a million miles away from my wish list: small, skinny, and about as good-looking as a bulldog. But, he made me laugh and kept me laughing for six months. Until he dumped me for a fat girl who worked in a shop. The bloody sweet counter no less.’

She stopped talking. Fiddled with her hair, swept it back, then continued.  ‘I was devastated at the time. There’s nothing so painful as being dumped, especially if it’s your first time. Then I met Carl and my whole world changed.’

She stopped talking. Almost as if she realised I would be interested now.

‘Get your retaliation in first. That was Carl. He taught me all that stuff.  I already knew how to fight. Much more useful was learning how to fight dirty. Don’t punch if you can avoid it. Knuckles are fragile. A knee in the balls, an elbow in the throat, a finger in the eye, maximum damage for minimum effort.’

I nodded. I knew all this. It was second nature. She shook her head as if at a private memory.

‘I’m good at it. Fighting. Know how to use my boot on the inside of a knee, how to stamp on an instep. No question about it, I’m dangerous. It’s the only thing I’m proud of.’

She flicked at her hair, a savage spiky crop with a bleached fringe, lightly gelled.

‘I had to kill him. Terry. Him and the fat cow he’d gone off with. You see that, don’t you? No other choice. Carl made me see there was no choice. Not really. Self-respect, see? Gotta have self-respect or you’ve got nothing.’

She stopped talking. Turned away. That would be all I’d get today. It wasn’t enough.

I went next door, talked to Carl.

He was sitting with his legs crossed, eyes closed. At peace. Being here, locked up, didn’t bother him.

Nothing bothered him.

He opened his eyes as I came in, sat down.

‘Been chatting, has she?’ He appeared interested for a moment. I’d not seen this side of him before. Interested.

‘A bit.’

‘Right.’

‘Want to hear what she said?’

He smiled at me, eyes crinkling. ‘Not really.’

‘What about you, Carl? Feeling chatty are you?’

This time the smile never reached his eyes. ‘I could chat,’ he said. ‘Nothing better to do. Not sure you’d want to hear it.’

‘Try me.’

Carl leant forward, as far as his restraints would allow. ‘What they want me to talk about is boring. The police, the doctors, all of them. I could talk to you, if you like. You’re a good listener. My choice though. I pick the subject.’

I nodded. Carl Harker was a dangerous man. As dangerous as any man I’d met and I had twenty years of exposure to dangerous men behind me. The girl, she was different. One of many who Carl had manipulated over the years. She’d been charged with murder. Two counts. Carl hadn’t been charged with anything.

Yet.

Carl was insane.

I had no expectations he’d start telling me any secrets. Not this man. His IQ was off the scale and this was all a game to him.

‘How about I tell you about my childhood?’ His voice was soft, gentle even. ‘Let you work it out. Nature or nurture? I was never a happy child. Remember that. It’s important. Do you want to tape this?’

I shook my head. The answer should have been yes, but I reasoned he’d be less forthcoming if I made it an issue. The room was live anyway. Contrary to regulations, anything said here would be inadmissible, but this was my shot at taking my own case forward. I wasn’t interested in Carl. Or the girl. Letting them rot in prison sounded a good plan, but other than wishing to see them off the streets I had no feelings either way.

Carl could help me. He didn’t know it yet. Didn’t know who I was. Who I worked for. If he thought I was a policeman, that was fine. I hadn’t said so. Not in so many words.

‘Don’t interrupt, right? I’m not looking for conversation.’

I nodded. That was fine by me.

‘Why don’t I start at the beginning. I had a sister. A year younger. My earliest memory is of hating  her.  I begrudged the attention she received, fairly normal behaviour for a child. Sibling rivalry, they call it. She disappeared. All very sad. Never turned up either. Not all of her anyway.’

I felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room. His eyes were like stones in a river bed. Hard and unyielding. Lacking any feeling. I knew he’d never admit anything that would directly incriminate himself. Better interrogators than me had spent untold hours working away at him. Without success. But this was a new departure. Talking about his personal life. I said nothing. Waited him out.

‘I picked things up early, understood the concept of reading, for instance, after about an hour of A, B and C. When I realised it made my mother happy to see how clever I was, I pushed it for all it was worth. I could read practically everything by the time I was three. I read in secret. Newspapers, novels, anything I could get hold of.  I’m not saying I understood it all, I was only three, but I stored it away until it fell into place.  That’s something you should remember; I never forget anything. My sister was ordinary. Not like me. I didn’t miss her. Not at all.’

He stopped talking. Sat back again.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘You know when to keep quiet. Hoping I’ll say where my sister is, are you? Or some of the others?’ He tapped his long, slim fingers on the table. ‘Not very likely, is it? Not after all this time. Secrets are such fun, don’t you think?’

He waved a hand towards the door. ‘You might as well fuck off,’ he said. ‘Nothing more here. Come back tomorrow. We’ll chat.’

I stood up, walked towards the door. ‘I’m busy tomorrow,’ I said, over my shoulder. ‘Having my hair cut.’

‘You fuckin’ get back here,’ he screamed, spittle flying, his rage instant and uncontrolled.

I stopped at the door, turned back. His face was contorted, fists clenched.

‘Why?’ I said. ‘I’ve got better things to do than talk to fucking losers. See you in a day or two. Maybe. You’re not going anywhere.’

I closed the door behind me, walked along the corridor. Three men in uniform watched a monitor. Back in the locked room, Carl thrashed against the chains that secured him, eyes rolling back in his head.

‘Fuck me,’ the senior man said, grinning. ‘You wound him up big style.’

I grinned back. ‘I’ll try again in a couple of days. See how he is.’

‘Rather you than me,’ the same man called after me. I nodded.

Carl knew things. Things I needed to know. Things he wouldn’t tell me. I’d have to find a way of getting him to talk to me without him knowing what I really wanted. Today had been a start.